12 Principles for Secure Communication in Critical Situations

A Germany-based organization, the Critical Messaging Association (CMA), said they have defined principles for secure communication in critical situations, coming on the heels of recent natural disasters.

Natural disasters and crises over the past five years have demonstrated what many believe to be the critical need for resilient and reliable communication systems to ensure timely warnings and efficient coordination during disasters. According to CMA, relying only on common services and infrastructures that are widely available to private customers is not enough.

The CMA shares important insights into communication solutions that also work in critical situations. Their 12 principles for secure communication are pasted below:

1. Critical messaging is becoming increasingly important. The last five years have shown this once again. Hurricanes in many parts of the world, acts of war even in areas of Europe that we could not have imagined.

2. Relying only on common services and infrastructures that are widely available to private customers is not nearly enough and is not state of the art. Anyone who relies only on one (for example cellular telephony) communication service is not  taking their economic, technical and legal responsibility seriously enough.

3. Critical applications depend on particularly high availability, on the last percentages and fractions of percentages. After all, communication should work precisely when nothing else works.

4. Only independent multiple communication services make high availability possible and affordable. Using only one infrastructure does not solve the problem.

5. Ideally, and in the absence of any crisis situation, people will become accustomed to constant availability and the best.

6. Pursuing trendy terminology can sometimes result in poor choices regarding resource selection. Consider how individuals in the 1920s might have perceived railroads as outdated forms of transportation. Fortunately, the popularity of airships (up until 1929) didn't lead to the neglect of railway infrastructure, despite it seeming "out of style."

7. Broadband is nice. Availability is more important. Trying to prevent creative solutions by planning the probability of failure leads to high prices, disillusionment and frustration.

8. Hybrid solutions are state of the art. From independent services. Joined together at the ends in software and hardware. Voice and data, broadband and narrowband must be combined to provide a complete communications solution.

9. Backward compatibility and advance planning for possible outages are particularly important for ensuring investment protection and facilitating a seamless transition in the future.

10. Companies with close customer proximity have been active in the SME sector for decades. They do not keep up with the latest fashions but add innovations in a targeted manner without wanting to move users away from secure solutions at great expense and risk.

11. They are characterized by their special responsiveness to societies’ and customers’ needs.

12. Existing solutions have proven themselves and are suitable for the requirements. Often based on alternative infrastructure. Existing infrastructure and services, therefore expensive to replace - if at all possible - with other solutions. Proven and independent offerings are important

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